• When installed as a standalone application, pdfToolbox Desktop completely
  replaces the inbuilt preflight capability of Adobe Acrobat;
  in such cases there is no need to also buy / install Adobe Acrobat.


• When installed as a plugin into Adobe Acrobat,
  pdfToolbox Desktop vastly extends and enhances the basic,
  inbuilt preflight capability of Adobe Acrobat.

• Switchboard (user dashboard) for ready-made actions


• Visualizer for visually inspecting PDF documents

• Profiles for more customization


• Variabels to make profiles dynamic


• Process plans to introduce processing logic

• flatten transparency,


• convert fonts to outlines,


• insert trim and bleed boxes to match printer marks,


• convert office documents or even PostScript files directly into PDF,


• compare versions of PDF files,


• visualize ink coverage,…

• callas pdfToolbox Desktop for individual and interactive use on desktops.
  Aimed at providing preflight, correct and repurpose of PDF files for
  prepress, print production, digital publishing and accessible PDF.

  Gives all aspects of working with PDFs a massive boost with a greatly
  extended feature set for a diversity of user's needs.
  Runs as independent application or as plug-in for Adobe® Acrobat®.
  
  Fix one file at a time or, in batch mode, a whole bunch of PDF documents.
  The Switchboard allows you to run any action on a whole folder of PDF files;
  the files are automatically moved to success or error folders
  based on the result of processing.
  Of course this is not a substitute for watched folders in pdfToolbox Server & CLI,
  but it can save you loads of time if you need to process multiple documents.



• callas pdfToolbox Server & CLI are fully customizable server solutions that
  allow for automation of workflows through watched folders or ready for
  integration into existing systems through a command line interface.
  
  callas pdfToolbox Server is used to automate callas pdfToolbox or
  when integrating callas pdfToolbox into an existing workflow.
  Hotfolder-based automation for efficient preflight/checking,
  correction and perfect color conversion and optimization of PDF files.
  Includes one license of callas pdfToolbox Desktop (MacOS X or Windows)
  for configuration and testing purposes.
  Integrates into any web-portal or automation workflow.
  Direct integration with Enfocus FullSwitch and PowerSwitch
  by means of the provided application configurations.
  
  callas pdfToolbox CLI-based (command line interface) automation of PDF processes.
  Is the fastest way for developers to leverage callas PDF technologies into custom solutions.
  Fast, robust integration of PDF preflighting and processing in any environment.
  Fully-featured PDF preflighting, correction, color-management and
  imposition functionality into custom workflows and solutions.


• callas pdfToolbox SDK (Software Development Kit) is a
  programming library/software development kit for developers
  with a need for PDF optimization, validation and correction.
  Facilitates the development of any kind of application that must edit PDF files.
  Enables development of state-of-the-art products to check and correct PDF files.
  Includes one license for the callas pdfToolbox Desktop (MacOS X or Windows)
  for configuration and testing purposes.

• Preflight


• Embedding fonts


• Outlining text


• Comparing PDF files


• Adding a stamp


• Placing (dynamic) barcodes


• Imposition


• Converting RGB


• Flattening transparency


• Converting to image


• Go from/to PostScript


• Changing page size


• Rotating pages


• Removing spot colors


• Fixing spot color names


• Fixing overprinting white (or black)


• Creating rich black


• Comparing PDF versions


• Rearranging pages


• Adding printer marks


• Cropping white space and hidden content


• Use DeviceLink profiles


• Convert to multi-channel PDF


• Convert office files to PDF


• Downsampling images


• Removing layers


• Splitting PDFs


• Viewing excess ink usage


• Adding bleed


• Outlining page boxes


• Adding white margins


• Writing checks with Javascript


• Conditional processing using Javascript


• Adding undercolor white


• Setting page boxes based on page content


• Adding varnish layer


• Adding grommets (eyelets)


• Tiling into smaller pieces


• .


• .

• callas pdfToolbox comes with full support for process plans.


• Process Plans take automation flexibility to the next level:


• They allow defining a number of steps a PDF file should be processed through.


• Each step can be a preflight profile,
  a single preflight check or fix, or an action
  (such as creating images, creating a booklet, exporting as PostScript file…).


• Process plans allow generating preflight reports based on
  the result of each step, or can jump between different steps
  based on the processing result of a previous step.

• Sample use case:

• Optimizing QR Codes for ePapers

Digitization has revolutionized the way we consume information.
What used to be printed on paper is most of the time
now also available in digital form.
Publishers have fully adapted to the digital age and
extended their reach beyond the traditional print format.

Most newspapers and magazines today offer
digital versions of their publications.
These digital replicas, known as ePapers,
are static representations of the print editions and
usually shared as downloadable PDF files.
This allows readers to easily access the content
on a device of their choice.




QR Codes (Quick Response Codes) are an important tool that
bridges the gap between printed paper and the digital world:

QR Codes have the capacity to store a wide range of data and,
provide instant access to the encoded information usually
accessed via a smartphone camera.

Today, QR Codes are omnipresent and newspapers and magazines
are using them to provide readers with quick and easy access
to additional, digital content.

This works very well in a printed publication,
where the QR Codes can simply be scanned
with a mobile device.
However, in a digital ePaper they rather are
a stumbling block in the user experience,
as accessing QR Code content in digital formats
like ePapers is not straight forward.




Maybe you've experienced this before:
You're reading an article on your smartphone and come across
a QR Code that offers extra information about the topic.

The tricky part is that you can't scan the QR Code
directly with your smartphone camera.
Sure, there are ways to get to the QR Code's content,
but these methods are often not very user-friendly.
In the worst case, you might just give up and
miss out on valuable content.

Ideally, you'd like to have clickable links within the ePaper,
that give you instant access to the QR Code's content
with a simple tap.

But to achieve this, publishers may face a problem:
ePapers are normally derived from the print PDF,
where the destination URLs are already encoded
within the QR Codes.
You would need to extract these URLs for each
individual QR Code to generate link annotations.

Thus, to improve the user experience,
it is important to optimize QR Codes for ePapers.




callas pdfToolbox helps you simplify and automate PDF creation
and allows you to overcome this QR Code challenge.

This is how you determine QR Code values and place icons + link for URL:
The solution is a callas pdfToolbox Process Plan that identifies
all QR Codes in a document, decodes their URLs,
and integrates a clickable icon on top of each QR Code
with the URL that was encoded in the QR Code behind,
providing a seamless way to access digital content
with just one tap.

The image below illustrates the result:
Each QR Code in a document is overlaid with an icon of your choice.
To access the QR Code URL, readers simply click on the icon on
their digital device and can immediately see the related content.

You can download this process plan for free (no cost)
(including a test file and icon) here:

• callas pdfToolbox Process Plan:
  Optimizing QR Codes for digital use

During runtime you can specify which icon
you want to use for the link.

For a detailed article explaining
the different steps of the process plan, please see
"Place icons and link annotations on QR Codes" in:

• callas pdfToolbox Online Documentation

Impositioning is the action of placement of the pages on a press sheet
so that the sheet after printing and folding carries the pages in
the correct sequence in the finished printed product.

• callas pdfToolbox scales, fits, moves, extends, rotates and
  flips pages and page content easily.


• It also imposes anything from simple booklets to fully-fledged
  brochures and books, as well as doing N-up and step and
  repeat impositions for digital printing.

• Handling PDF documents with live transparency when your workflow
  or output devices don’t directly support them can be really hard.


• callas pdfToolbox effortlessly flattens those transparencies while
  reserving text, images and line-art as much as possible and
  without changing the intent of the document.


• And you can rely on that result as it uses proven Adobe flattening technology.

• Every callas pdfToolbox Server comes with a copy callas pdfToolbox Desktop.


• callas pdfToolbox Desktop allows connecting to your pdfToolbox servers;
  all configuration and monitoring of callas pdfToolbox Servers on your network
  can be done over the network from the comfort of your own desktop computer.

• Of course callas pdfToolbox Server supports hot folders.


• It also allows integration using the command-line (CLI) or
  an extensive SDK ideal for embedding the latest PDF technology
  straight in your Web2Print or order administration system.

• callas pdfToolbox doesn't even limit itself to one system.
  By using automatic load balancing, callas pdfToolbox allows for
  configuring a dispatcher that then distributes work across the network
  to satellites running on different systems.


• High performance coupled with easy setup and maintenance.

• Allows for load balancing as well as for fail over configuration.


• Processing of files according to "dispatcher-satellite" concept.


• Dispatcher - a server that doesn’t process files itself, but instead receives
  files in its job folders and sends them to satellites to have them processed.


• Satellite - a satellite is basically a regular server that will process files.


• As many "satellites" as required can connect to callas pdfToolbox Dispatcher

so that processing does not stop even if one of the satellites is switched off.

• Fail over - processing does not stop even if one of the satellites is switched off.


• For dynamic allocation of cloud-based processing capacity services,
  see callas License Server.

• callas pdfToolbox integrates seamlessly with
  FileTrain for automation of work flows.

PDF Processing Steps Metadata

callas pdfToolbox support interactive as well as profile driven evaluation,
modification and preflight of PDF Processing Steps Metadata.

The Processing Steps Concept.

Processing Steps is a specification originally developed by
The Ghent Workgroup to associate metadata information
about non-printing and finishing processes
(such as cutting, embossing, varnish, conversion, Braille, …)
with a PDF document.

PDF files in packaging workflows commonly contain the design
to be printed and elements that are not printed, yet are crucial to
how the printed piece is going to be further processed.
A prime example is cutting and folding information which is needed
after printing, to cut a box to final format and fold it into its 3D shape.

The Ghent Workgroup identified years ago that a lack of
standardization in the way these “processing steps” elements
were contained in PDF documents, were a hindrance to
the acceptance of PDF as the standard format in such packaging workflows.

• Video (total: 45:10) - Introduction to Processing Steps.
  Demo: "A possible workflow with Processing Steps
  in axaio MadeForLayers and callas pdfToolbox"

PDF Processing Steps Use Cases.

Layers can now have both regular metadata and
processing steps metadata attached to them.

The PDF Processing Steps metadata standard is of key importance for
packaging-, label- and large format-specific groups of processing-steps data.

PDF Processing Steps allows packaging and product developers and
designers to specify post-print workflow components with a PDF file
in a language-independent, vendor-neutral way.

PDF Processing Steps specifies how standardized post-print workflow elements
(e.g. cutting, folding) can be stored in a PDF file in a standardized way,
a substantial improvement over today’s vendor-specific arrangements.

The standardisation is based on the ISO Standard 19593-1,
Part 1: Processing steps for packaging and labels, which defines
the use of PDF to associate processing steps and content data.

With the help of the PDF Processing Steps standard,
standardization of automation of processing steps
in packaging production can be improved substantially.

It standardizes metadata for layers to allow for interoperability between
devices in exchanging data for non-print processing steps. In addition,
it defines rules for objects on and interdependencies between layers.

It creates the possibility to add standardised terms to each layer to
help identify the layer in subsequent processing steps in the workflow.

This type of information has usually earlier been defined as
technical spot colors in a PDF.
For lack of standardization, everybody has been using different names,
which made workflow automation very difficult.

Processing steps metadata is primarily interesting for packaging since,
in addition to the printing objects, a good deal of additional information
are defined in a PDF for packaging.
This allows a language independent identification of these objects.

This is done by grouping page objects in layers
(technically: optional content groups, OCG), and adding metadata to
those layers to identify them as processing steps.

With ISO 19593-1, packaging production workflows can be significantly
enhanced to include specifications for cutting lines, varnishing, embossing,
add braille and more using standardized, language-independent metadata
together with PDF’s Optional Content Groups (OCGs) feature.

When associated with OCGs, processing steps information allows
diverse authors, users or workflow operators to choose specific elements,
for example, to verify cut-marks, check colors, or other considerations.

Metadata can now be used for selective display of the elements for validation.
A marketing person is interested in other elements than a prepress specialist.
For proof output cutting lines, braille, etc. are also printed while for
CTP (Computer To Plate) output they are automatically omitted.

In addition, subsequent systems (e.g. impostion, embossing, braille)
which support this standard can retrieve the information relevant for
their processing step directly in the PDF data.

Use cases include:

• metadata identifying processing steps;


• limitations on the interaction between PDF graphics objects
  that are part of a processing step and other PDF graphics objects;


• limitations on PDF graphics objects in processing steps;


• Easily identifying data corresponding to "Structural" finishing steps, such as
  
  • Bleed, cutting, creasing, drilling, embossing, folding,
    foil stamping, folding, glueing, perforating, punching,
    stapling, varnish free;
  
  
• Braille in a document;


• information panels;


• indications of physical dimensions;


• indications of intended positions of graphical elements;


• printed white, for example on transparent or metallic surfaces;


• printed varnish.

PDF Processing Steps Support in callas pdfToolbox.

PDF Processing Steps Metadata supported in callas pdfToolbox:

• Setting


• Checking


• Adjusting


• Reporting

Setting - In pdfToolbox, the processing steps metadata is filled out
for each layer using the pdfToolbox Layer Explorer panel.

Checking - Properties that can be used in Checks:

• "Processing Steps metadata present"


• "Processing Steps metadata uses custom values"


• "Processing Steps metadata used for more than one layer"


• "Processing Steps"
• Presence of specified Processing Steps,
  e.g. “Structural:Cutting”


• Can be combined with any other checks
  (e.g. color on Barcode, text or image on Cutting …)

Adjusting - Adjusting Processing Steps:

Configurable Fixups:

• "Add Processing Steps layer metadata” to layer


• “Modify layer name for Processing Steps metadata”


• “Put objects on Processing Steps layer”


• Plus: Relevant layer related Fixups can use Processing Step
  metadata instead of layer names, e.g. “Remove layer":

Reporting - Processing Steps metadata is listed whenever layer details are reported

DeviceLink Conversion

• The callas DeviceLink set of profiles
  (integrated in pdfToolbox since version 10.1)
  is a comprehensive set of specially prepared DeviceLink profiles
  to perform color transformations of complete PDF files.

This way the colors of a PDF file prepared for a
different printing condition can be transformed to meet
the needs of the actual printing condition.
callas DeviceLink Add-on profiles take care that pure colors
do not get “polluted” and elements in gray stay gray.



• The callas DeviceLink Add-on is delivered with a package of
  the most common DeviceLink profiles.
  Own user-specific profiles can be added for
  DeviceLink conversion with callas pdfToolbox.



• More details on the concept of DeviceLink profiles
  with a list of callas DeviceLink Add-on profiles.



• Typical use cases on the use of
  pdfToolbox with DeviceLink profiles.



• See also this callas software blog:
  Why DeviceLink profiles should interest you.